Файл:LogoBitard2.jpgRepresentation of the Bitard: beech marten head, carp body, turkey and peacock feathers, hare paws and academic palms[1]
The Bitard is a fabulous animal. It is the symbol of the Шаблон:Lang or Order of the Venerated Bitard (May He be Blessed!), a student association of University of Poitiers (France) created in the 1920s. The members themselves are also called Bitards and in some occasions they wear a cape colored according to their rank in the Order, along with a faluche, the traditional French Student cap. The Bitards' faluche has the particularity of being decorated with a chevron and having its own code for the signification of insignias. The folklore of the Order refers to François Rabelais as the word Шаблон:Lang appears twice in hunting outcomes in Pantagruel.[2]
Each year, the Order organizes a one-week festival, called the Шаблон:Lang (69th Students' Week). Various festive activities happen during this week, including a procession,[3] drinking events and a Bitard hunting. There is also a fresco depicting the hunting of the Bitard on an interior wall of the Roche-d'Argent university restaurant (located in downtown Poitiers, near the Saint-Jean baptistery). A concrete statue of a phallus, called "quéquette" or "blanche verge et les sept mains", erected by the Order of the Bitard in 1976 on the Poitiers campus, is a folk symbol for Poitiers students. The sculpture accidentally destroyed, during construction, in October 2015, was rebuilt, in April 2016.[4]
